Savvy Dodd Benefits Constituents, Image

Dodd Plays Political Hardball With Eye On Constituents, Image

WASHINGTON — Vicki Yandle, the mother of a 16-year-old who lost a leg to cancer, is speaking calmly. But the dismay is spreading in waves across the vast room filled with politicians and reporters.

Yandle, of Georgia, tells a horrible story. Accused by her employer of lying about her daughter's illness, Yandle has lost her job, as has her husband, because they took time off from work to care for their sick child.

Several members of Congress, appearing in support of the family leave bill, are trying hard to hold back tears. Even Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the bill's chief sponsor, who has heard their story before, is not immune.

The scene is vintage Dodd: the tough senator with a heart. He can bargain hard and cut a backroom deal or set the stage for a public tear-jerker.

It is a Senate repertoire honed over the years to score points with mostly middle-aged men who aren't easily moved.

The public has become less enamored with career politicians, and that should spell trouble for Dodd, whose father was a U.S. senator and who has done little else but hold elective office.

But that early and steady diet of politics has not been wasted on Dodd. He has learned his lessons: work the backrooms where the deals are made, turn a political deficit to advantage, identify which issue will be the next to gather wide public support.

He spotted family leave -- the issue that brought Yandle before the Senate -- seven years ago.

Ever since, the divorced and childless 48-year-old has pursued family leave as avidly as any family man. There has been no evidence that he is insincere. But the effort has not hurt his image either.

All the while, he has taken care not to provide the press and the public with any more ammunition to fuel his reputation as one of Washington's more noted party-goers.

And he has compiled a broad portfolio of issues and a record

that has insulated him somewhat from the complaint against his colleagues that they are inside-the-Beltway pols, out of touch with real people.

Since his second term began in 1986, Dodd has tried to save Connecticut-built submarines, fought over U.S. policy toward Central America, sought funds for public works projects, pushed to convert the defense industry to peacetime production and strived for family-leave and child-care legislation.

He has also gotten religion when faced with the temptation of honorariums.

Like many other senators, Dodd spent much of his first eight years in the Senate supplementing his salary with the free travel and fees paid by special interests that proffered speaking engagements, often in resort areas.

But two years into his second term, Dodd saw Connecticut's then senior senator, Lowell P. Weicker Jr., lose re-election, in part because of criticism that he had missed votes to take honorariums.

Dodd quickly pushed his way to the front of the crowd seeking a ban. He gleaned national attention for doing it, even though he also backed a pay raise for himself and his colleagues.

It is several days after the Yandles' press conference, and Dodd recalls the family's bravery.

Despite the sorrow of the moment, it is times like that, he says, that make him think his job is meaningful to real people.

"My motivators are people," he said.

With a schedule that always seems overbooked, Dodd gives off the aura of someone extremely busy, running from meetings to votes on the Senate floor. Yet, despite his professed interest in the job, Dodd's second term also seemed, at its midpoint, to dip into a kind of torpor.

In the past year or so, Dodd has increased his public appearances in Connecticut and made an intense effort at local contacts. That started after several of his most loyal supporters gave him a wake-up call almost two years ago, warning him that his poll ratings were dipping and urging him to reorganize parts of his Senate staff.

Close friends such as former Dodd aide Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, and her husband, pollster Stanley Greenberg, have also encouraged Dodd in recent years to project a more serious image.

They helped talk him into getting rid of a top aide and hiring one who has extensive campaign experience, though limited knowledge of the substance of the issues Dodd tackles; the change indicated to some that Dodd was more worried about his political standing than about his policy initiatives.

But it would be hard to make a case that Dodd has ignored policy.

He had begun his Senate career 12 years ago, after three terms in the House, hoping to concentrate on a few issues. He chose them by casting around for topics that no one was paying much attention to -- and which he thought his constituents generally would support.

"I looked around and saw some things that needed attention," Dodd said.

His second Senate term has been a curious mix of legislative battle and personal metamorphosis.

Dodd is well known for his close friendship with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and the connection, which his aides have sought